I'm just a poor lil' full-time job holding married dame stuck in my suburban (Chicago NW 'burbs) lifestyle. No more roadtrips to LA to visit friends and see bands play or tour buses for me. It's all about punching the work clock & coming home and -gasp- actually enjoying being a housewife. Except for that whole "cleaning" bit. I have a distrubing love for my appliances and am one of those odd people who actually enjoys cooking (most of the time). Oh, and we also do the occasional trip to Vegas.

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Happy Pączki Day/Fat Tuesday!!!

I'm an equal opportunity food lover... we celebrate both Pączki Day and Fat Tuesday in this household.

For those who don't come from areas with very large Polish populations, "Pączki Day" is a mostly Polish-American tradition for the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday (I think in Poland proper they actually do it on Thursday). There are many people of Polish decent in the Chicago area. I am married to one of them. Every Pączki Day, his mom heads out early to pick up Pączki to bring to my father in law's office, and she always saves a couple for us. Who doesn't love a huge jelly or cream filled doughnut every once in awhile?

First up... enchiladas...

Add some filling to the bottom of the dish....

I did some in corn tortillas for me (for tonight, and some for lunches for the week) and some in flour tortillas for the hubby. He hates corn tortillas. When he told me this, I looked at him like he had two heads.

Top that with the rest of the filling, and then cheese. I've learned that no matter how much cheese I put inside enchiladas, the hubby doesn't believe it unless he sees cheese on top. So I usually put most of the cheese on top. Just easier that way.

The proper directions give instructions on putting them in the oven to melt the cheese and heat through. I usually just throw them in the microwave and heat them up that way, because "enchiladas = microwave" to me after our old apartment, when turning on the oven to any temp for any length of time meant it would be 90 degrees in the apartment - no matter what time of year. But this time, I decided to throw them in the oven.

Yeah. Should have gone with what I know. The cheese on top did kind of melt, but they were stone cold in the middle and I ended up nuking them anyway. Go, instructions!

For a side, red beans and rice. I use a bag mix. Deal with it.

I actually love Vigo rice mixes, for the most part. In college, the read beans & rice was cheap and easy and was dinner very, very often.

I also picked up some already-boiled and frozen crawfish at Whole Foods over the weekend. They looked good, but I suspected they might not be. I was right. I just steamed them and they weren't overcooked, they just also weren't very tasty.

But they do look pretty, at least.

The enchiladas... or what was left after I scooped out our servings that I threw in the microwave.

The jalepeno was not NEARLY as strong as yesterday - good thing - and they were very tasty. Filling was a little runny but that was my own doing, since I added some more milk to try and tame the heat, and the Wondra flour I also added didn't do much to thicken them. In any case, it was a nice, tasty dinner, and I was able to get it all done while running up and down the stairs while trying to get my workout done in the basement.

And the workout was worth it, because I got to have desert tonight....

That, my friends, is a Bostome Cream Pączki. Chocolate glaze, and a very non-sweet cream on the inside. And HUGE. Like twice the size of a regular doughnut. And I enjoyed every bite.